Bacterial pathogens can cause severe illness and even death if they are ingested by animals or humans. Detecting pathogens is critical in the food industry because foodborne pathogens infect unsuspecting consumers. Quality assurance tests must be done before food is shipped to ensure that pathogens are not present. Quality assurance tests, including environmental tests, must also be performed on an ongoing basis during production to ensure that the food is not contaminated during processing.
Traditional techniques for identifying pathogens are complicated and are time and labor intensive. Recently developed identification techniques utilize DNA probes and rely on the ability of complimentary nucleic acid strands to specifically align and associate to form stable double-stranded complexes. Although nucleic acid hybridization techniques greatly reduce the time required to identify pathogens as compared to physiological and biochemical methods; hybridization methods still require a culture suitable for testing. The process for obtaining a suitable culture is lengthy. It is the object of the present invention to reduce the amount of time and money required to obtain a suitable culture for detecting pathogens via nucleic acid hybridization techniques.
A common contaminant of the environment in food processing plants and some foods is Listeria monocytogenes which may cause death if immunosuppressed individuals ingest the bacteria. The current most conclusive method for detecting L. monocytogenes uses a DNA probe. The current method for obtaining a culture suitable for nucleic acid hybridization confirmation techniques is commonly known in the art and is diagrammed in FIG. 1. To obtain a suitable culture, a sample from a suspect food or environmental source is placed in a broth to obtain a primary enrichment. A primary enrichment broth is one which contains many nutrients and may not be selective-for the suspect organism. If one is testing for the presence of L. monocytogenes, an example of a broth suitable for a primary enrichment is University of Vermont Media (UVM as available from Difco of Detroit, Mich.). The inoculated primary enrichment broth is incubated for about 24 hours at about 30.degree. C.
After incubation, the primary enrichment may be used to inoculate a broth for a secondary enrichment. Secondary enrichment broths are preferably selective or presumptively differential for the organism being detected. Not all organisms require a secondary enrichment and one skilled in the art will be able to determine whether or not the suspect organism requires a secondary enrichment for detection purposes.
If one is testing for L. monocytogenes, a secondary enrichment is necessary and Fraser Broth is a suitable secondary enrichment broth. For L. monocytogenes, the secondary enrichment is incubated for about 24 to about 28 hours at about 35.degree. C. Fraser and Sperber, "Rapid Detection of Listeria spp. in Food & Environmental Samples by Esculin Hydrolysis," Journal of Food Protection, Vol., No. 10, pp. 762-765 (October '88) discusses the efficacy of Fraser Broth for the presumptive detection of Listeria species. The Fraser and Sperber article is herein incorporated by reference. The screening with Fraser Broth allows the technician only to test samples which presumptively contain L. monocytogenes, positive samples turn Fraser Broth dark brown or black.
The presumptively positive secondary enrichment samples are next streaked onto plates. When testing for L. monocytogenes, a suitable plating medium is Listeria Plating Medium (LPM) (Difco). The plates are then incubated for about 48 hours at about 35.degree. C. Colonies which are suspected to be L. monocytogenes are picked and streaked onto Trypticase Soy Agar with 0.6% Yeast Extract plates (TSA-YE) (Difco) which are incubated for about 24 to 48 hours at about 35.degree. C. After the lengthy foregone procedure, the sample is finally ready for identification via nucleic acid hybridization. The procedure takes at least about 4 and up to about 6 days to complete. During this preliminary incubation and screening, people may be eating food contaminated with L. monocytogenes which poses health risks. Alternatively, production of foods may be halted which is expensive. Both of these consequences are unacceptable.
As further shown in FIG. 1, a nucleic acid hybridization which is a conclusive identification test may be performed on a culture obtained from the above-described procedure. The ACCUPROBE.TM. L. monocytogenes Culture Confirmation Test assay procedure sold by Gen-Probe.RTM. of San Diego, Calif. gives the following protocol for nucleic acid hybridization. The ACCUPROBE.TM. procedure, which is herein incorporated by reference, involves a Sample Preparation, Hybridization, Selection, and a Detection Step. The first step is the Sample Preparation Step. Fifty microliters of 0.04% sodium azide solution (Reagent 1 as purchased in the ACCUPROBE.TM. L. monocytogenes Culture Confirmation Test--hereinafter "ACCUPROBE.TM. Kit") is added to lyophilized nucleic acid which is specific for the organism to be identified. One microliter loopful of cells from the LPM plates is also added to the Reagent 1 tube. The above combination is incubated for about 5 to 10 minutes at about 35 to 37.degree. C. to lyse the cells.
After the Sample Preparation, the Hybridization step is performed. Fifty microliters of Reagent 2, which is identified only as a "Buffered Solution" in the AccuProbe.TM. Kit, is added to the combination. This is incubated for about 15 minutes at about 60.degree. C.
The Selection Step follows the Hybridization Step. The Selection Step includes adding about 300 microliters of Reagent 3 (identified only as the "Selection Reagent" in the ACCUPROBE.TM. Kit and corresponding protocol) to the combination and incubating for about 5 minutes at about 60.degree. C. After allowing the tubes to equilibrate at room temperature for about 5 minutes, the samples are read in a Luminometer as can be purchased from Gen-Probe.RTM. and any samples having a reading of 50,000 Relative Light Units (RLU) on the Leader model Luminometer or more is deemed positive or about 1500 RLU or more on the PAL model Luminometer is deemed positive.
The ACCUPROBE.TM. single-stranded DNA probe uses a chemiluminescent label. Once the bacteria have lysed, the ACCUPROBE.TM. DNA strand is free to hybridize with the bacterial ribosomal RNA and form a stable DNA:RNA hybrid. The detection reagents which are hydrogen peroxide in nitric acid and a 1N solution of sodium hydroxide allow for the differentiation between the hybridized and non-hybridized probe and only those which have hybridized luminesce. This chemiluminescence reaction is fully described in Okwumabua, et al, "Evaluation of a Chemiluminescent DNA Probe Assay for the Rapid Confirmation of Listeria monocytogenes," Research Microbiology (1992) Vol. 143, pp. 183-189 which is herein incorporated by reference.
DNA probes used to detect pathogenic bacteria may be purchased from Gen-Probe.RTM. of San Diego, Calif. Currently available DNA probes include tests for Campylobacter, Enterococcus, Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria gonorrohoeae, Staphylococcus aureus, Group A and Group B Streptococcus, Streptococcus pnumoniae, and of course, L. monocytogenes. The method of the present invention may be used with any existing DNA probe to reduce the time and labor required to identify non-viral organisms. Alternatively, one may develop DNA probes specific for the suspect organism by following the disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 4,851,330 which is herein incorporated by reference.